Starch for making Eco Starch Resin™

BiologiQ builds factories to meet production demand around the globe. Our production process is easily scalable and we increase capacity in small increments to match demand without the need for building large scale fermentation facilities. We make ESR at factories that are located close to the source of raw materials and or customer factories. Each factory is designed to produce approximately 24,000 Tons of Eco Starch Resin™ (ESR) using 18,000 Tons of starch each year.

Approximately 0.4% by weight of all potato crops grown around the world end up as waste starch. As potatoes are cut into chips, french-fries and other potato food products, starch is released into the wash water. 1.4 Million Tons of waste potato starch is available annually from the 360 Million Tons of potatoes that are grown globally every year. This is enough starch to produce nearly 2 million Tons (more than 4 billion pounds) per year of ESR.

What are the major sources of potatoes in the world?

In 2007, the top producers of potatoes in the world were China, Russia, India, United States, Ukraine, Poland, Germany, Belarus, Netherlands, and France. China accounts for 20% of the potato growing area and more than 20% of the harvest. In 2007, China produced more than 72 million tons but only exported 250,000 tons. The chart below was acquired from Potato2008.org outlining the world’s top potato producers in 2007.

What is the potato harvest capacity of each region?

The United States ranks fourth in the world as the largest supplier of potatoes, in 2007 having harvested 20.3 million tons. In Idaho, potato farming accounts for a large portion of the agricultural industry with potatoes making up 35% of cash farm receipts. Idaho is the largest potato producing state in the U.S., and made up about 34% of the nation’s fall 2009 harvested acreage. French fry manufacturing uses 60% of this production. States coming in behind Idaho are Washington with 15.8% of total production harvest and North Dakota with 8.2%.

Other sources of Starch

Corn

The United States is the world’s top producer of corn, and the top exporter, growing 307.4 million tons or 39% of the world’s total supply of corn. Other major corn producing countries are China with 165.9 million tons, Brazil with 51 million tons, EU with 62.7 million tons, Mexico with 25 million tons, Argentina with 12.6 million tons and India with 18.5 million tons. In the U.S., corn is used primarily for feed & residual use (43.36%), food/seed/industrial use 41.2%, and about 15.4% is exported.

Wheat

The world’s top wheat producers are the European Union with 150 million tons, China with 112.5 million tons, India with 78.4 million tons, the United States with 68.0 million tons, Russia with 63.8 million tons, and Canada with 28.6 million tons. World use of wheat includes food (73.2%), feed (16.7%), and other (11%). Wheat starch does not produce the same high quality ESR pellet as that produced from using Potato, Corn and Cassava starch.

Cassava

Cassava Industry in Thailand

In 2007, global production capacity of cassava amounted to 228.14 million tons. Thailand was the third largest producer at 27 million tons, following Nigeria and Brazil. Nevertheless, since domestic consumption in Thailand is minimal Thailand is the largest exporter accounting for more than 80% of world trade.

At present the Thai government will lead policy of price guarantee for cassava production. It is the task of the government to secure sustainable plans, identify better frame strategies and policies for the future, look for opportunities and cost competitiveness and support the cassava production sufficient in this century.

27 million tons of cassava is produced in Thailand each year. The raw material can be purchased at a cheap price. Export prices for cassava starch are around $225 a ton ($0.11 per pound) for superfine cassava starch from Thailand. These prices do fluctuate; however, they are consistently lower than those of potato, maize and wheat starch produced in the European Union and the USA.